The romance alluded to in the foregoing chapter had been going on, so
far as Abijah Flagg's part of it was concerned, for many years, his
affection dating back in his own mind to the first moment that he saw
Emma Jane Perkins at the age of nine.
Emma Jane had shown no sign of reciprocating his attachment until the
last three years, when the evolution of the chore-boy into the
budding scholar and man of affairs had inflamed even her somewhat dull
imagination.
Squire Bean's wife had taken Abijah away from the poorhouse, thinking
that she could make him of some little use in her home. Abbie Flagg, the
mother, was neither wise nor beautiful; it is to be feared that she
was not even good, and her lack of all these desirable qualities,
particularly the last one, had been impressed upon the child ever since
he could remember. People seemed to blame him for being in the world at
all; this world that had not expected him nor desired him, nor made any
provision for him. The great battle-axe of poorhouse opinion was forever
leveled at the mere little atom of innocent transgression, until he grew
sad and shy, clumsy, stiff, and self-conscious. He had an indomitable
craving for love in his heart and had never received a caress in his
life.
He was more contented when he came to Squire Bean's house. The first
year he could only pick up chips, carry pine wood into the kitchen, go
to the post-office, run errands, drive the cows, and feed the hens, but
every day he grew more and more useful.
His only friend was little Jim Watson, the storekeeper's son, and they
were inseparable companions whenever Abijah had time for play.
One never-to-be-forgotten July day a new family moved into the white
cottage between Squire Bean's house and the Sawyers'. Mr. Perkins had
sold his farm beyond North Riverboro and had established a blacksmith's
shop in the village, at the Edgewood end of the bridge. This fact was of
no special interest to the nine-year-old Abijah, but what really was of
importance, was the appearance of a pretty little girl of seven in the
front yard; a pretty little fat doll of a girl, with bright fuzzy hair,
pink cheeks, blue eyes, and a smile of almost bewildering continuity.
Another might have criticised it as having the air of being glued on,
but Abijah was already in the toils and never wished it to move.
The next day being the glorious Fourth and a holiday, Jimmy Watson came
over like David, to visit his favorite Jonathan. His Jonathan met him
at the top of the hill, pleaded a pressing engagement, curtly sent him
home, and then went back to play with his new idol, with whom he
had already scraped acquaintance, her parents being exceedingly busy
settling the new house.
After the noon dinner Jimmy again yearned to resume friendly relations,
and, forgetting his rebuff, again toiled up the hill and appeared
unexpectedly at no great distance from the Perkins premises, wearing the
broad and beaming smile of one who is confident of welcome.
His morning call had been officious and unpleasant and unsolicited, but
his afternoon visit could only be regarded as impudent, audacious,
and positively dangerous; for Abijah and Emma Jane were cosily playing
house, the game of all others in which it is particularly desirable to
have two and not three participants.
At that moment the nature of Abijah changed, at once and forever.
Without a pang of conscience he flew over the intervening patch of
ground between himself and his dreaded rival, and seizing small stones
and larger ones, as haste and fury demanded, flung them at Jimmy Watson,
and flung and flung, till the bewildered boy ran down the hill howling.
Then he made a “stickin'” door to the play-house, put the awed Emma Jane
inside and strode up and down in front of the edifice like an Indian
brave. At such an early age does woman become a distracting and
disturbing influence in man's career!
Time went on, and so did the rivalry between the poorhouse boy and the
son of wealth, but Abijah's chances of friendship with Emma Jane grew
fewer and fewer as they both grew older. He did not go to school, so
there was no meeting-ground there, but sometimes, when he saw the knot
of boys and girls returning in the afternoon, he would invite Elijah and
Elisha, the Simpson twins, to visit him, and take pains to be in Squire
Bean's front yard, doing something that might impress his inamorata as
she passed the premises.
As Jimmy Watson was particularly small and fragile, Abijah generally
chose feats of strength and skill for these prearranged performances.
Sometimes he would throw his hat up into the elm trees as far as he
could and, when it came down, catch it on his head. Sometimes he would
walk on his hands, with his legs wriggling in the air, or turn a double
somersault, or jump incredible distances across the extended arms of
the Simpson twins; and his bosom swelled with pride when the girls
exclaimed, “Isn't he splendid!” although he often heard his rival murmur
scornfully, “_Smarty Aleck!_”--a scathing allusion of unknown origin.
Squire Bean, although he did not send the boy to school (thinking, as
he was of no possible importance in the universe, it was not worth
while bothering about his education), finally became impressed with his
ability, lent him books, and gave him more time to study. These were all
he needed, books and time, and when there was an especially hard knot to
untie, Rebecca, as the star scholar of the neighborhood, helped him to
untie it.
When he was sixteen he longed to go away from Riverboro and be something
better than a chore boy. Squire Bean had been giving him small wages
for three or four years, and when the time of parting came presented him
with a ten-dollar bill and a silver watch.
Many a time had he discussed his future with Rebecca and asked her
opinion.
This was not strange, for there was nothing in human form that she could
not and did not converse with, easily and delightedly. She had ideas
on every conceivable subject, and would have cheerfully advised the
minister if he had asked her. The fishman consulted her when he couldn't
endure his mother-in-law another minute in the house; Uncle Jerry
Cobb didn't part with his river field until he had talked it over with
Rebecca; and as for Aunt Jane, she couldn't decide whether to wear her
black merino or her gray thibet unless Rebecca cast the final vote.
Abijah wanted to go far away from Riverboro, as far as Limerick Academy,
which was at least fifteen miles; but although this seemed extreme,
Rebecca agreed, saying pensively: “There _is_ a kind of magicness about
going far away and then coming back all changed.”
This was precisely Abijah's unspoken thought. Limerick knew nothing of
Abbie Flagg's worthlessness, birth, and training, and the awful stigma
of his poorhouse birth, so that he would start fair. He could have gone
to Wareham and thus remained within daily sight of the beloved Emma
Jane; but no, he was not going to permit her to watch him in the process
of “becoming,” but after he had “become” something. He did not propose
to take any risks after all these years of silence and patience. Not he!
He proposed to disappear, like the moon on a dark night, and as he was,
at present, something that Mr. Perkins would by no means have in the
family nor Mrs. Perkins allow in the house, he would neither return to
Riverboro nor ask any favors of them until he had something to offer.
Yes, sir. He was going to be crammed to the eyebrows with learning for
one thing,--useless kinds and all,--going to have good clothes, and a
good income. Everything that was in his power should be right, because
there would always be lurking in the background the things he never
could help--the mother and the poorhouse.
So he went away, and, although at Squire Bean's invitation he came back
the first year for two brief visits at Christmas and Easter, he was
little seen in Riverboro, for Mr. Ladd finally found him a place where
he could make his vacations profitable and learn bookkeeping at the same
time.
The visits in Riverboro were tantalizing rather than pleasant. He
was invited to two parties, but he was all the time conscious of his
shirt-collar, and he was sure that his “pants” were not the proper
thing, for by this time his ideals of dress had attained an almost
unrealizable height. As for his shoes, he felt that he walked on carpets
as if they were furrows and he were propelling a plow or a harrow before
him. They played Drop the Handkerchief and Copenhagen at the parties,
but he had not had the audacity to kiss Emma Jane, which was bad enough,
but Jimmy had and did, which was infinitely worse! The sight of James
Watson's unworthy and over-ambitious lips on Emma Jane's pink cheek
almost destroyed his faith in an overruling Providence.
After the parties were over he went back to his old room in Squire
Bean's shed chamber. As he lay in bed his thoughts fluttered about
Emma Jane as swallows circle around the eaves. The terrible sickness of
hopeless handicapped love kept him awake. Once he crawled out of bed in
the night, lighted the lamp, and looked for his mustache, remembering
that he had seen a suspicion of down on his rival's upper lip. He rose
again half an hour later, again lighted the lamp, put a few drops of oil
on his hair, and brushed it violently for several minutes. Then he went
back to bed, and after making up his mind that he would buy a dulcimer
and learn to play on it so that he would be more attractive at parties,
and outshine his rival in society as he had aforetime in athletics, he
finally sank into a troubled slumber.
Those days, so full of hope and doubt and torture, seemed mercifully
unreal now, they lay so far back in the past--six or eight years, in
fact, which is a lifetime to the lad of twenty--and meantime he had
conquered many of the adverse circumstances that had threatened to cloud
his career.
Abijah Flagg was a true child of his native State. Something of the same
timber that Maine puts into her forests, something of the same strength
and resisting power that she works into her rocks, goes into her sons
and daughters; and at twenty Abijah was going to take his fate in his
hand and ask Mr. Perkins, the rich blacksmith, if, after a suitable
period of probation (during which he would further prepare himself for
his exalted destiny), he might marry the fair Emma Jane, sole heiress of
the Perkins house and fortunes.